"What is this?"

Responses I've received to the question, "What is this?" when referring to my insulin pump:

"Is that the new Android?""Totally a universal remote.""Why do you have your garage door opener with you?""Is that to keep track of your daughter on GPS?""iPod.""Isn't that to test whether or not an electrical current is live in a wall socket?""A an electronic level.""Dude, a beeper! Beepers were cool. I'd totally go back to one, too.""How many gigabytes does that USB hold?""Is that a colostomy bag?""Coin holder, like waiters have?""That looks a lot like the pocket rocker thing from the 80's - remember?"

Comments

Love it. The one I get most often is "Is that a pager?"
But one time I was in the Denver airport, waiting to board, and a man came up to me and asked me if I was diabetic. I said "Uh ... yes, how did you know?" He said, "I saw your insulin pump." :) His daughter was also a T1 and was going through a trial and flew to/from Dallas to Denver and she wore the same pump. It is always nice to meet other members of our "club" in random places. ;)

I've been using the pump (Medtronic) for about two years now. The second day, someone asked me about it. No one has asked since. On the surface, that seems kinda weird. You wonder if people are afraid of it. But maybe it just means that I do a fair job of maintaining a normal life and no one even notices the pump.

Except during a bad low once, when an EMT said "let's get this out of the way" and started trying to yank it off of me... with the tubing still attached! Ouch.

what if it was an electronic level that also opened your garage door while simultaneously testing the current from a socket, tracking your daughter, collecting your "waste" and was DISGUISED as a beeper?

I'm a former teacher and made the mistake one year of not telling my sixth graders that I was diabetic. I worried they wouldn't understand and that incorrect information would be shared at home. I had a Medtronic at the time and a rumor started that I had cancer. I had to have the D talk with my classes. I now have an OmniPod and only get asked about it when it's visible on my arm.

I started using the Omnipod about 1 1/2 years ago and get comments and questions all the time! Here are people's top 5 guesses:
1) pedometer
2) nicotine patch! LOL I must really be addicted cuz that'd be a LOT of nicotine!
3) heart monitor
4) port catheter site
5) birth control patch?!!! Seriously?! Haha. That'd be a lot of birth control meds.

There was a teacher at my daughter's school that every morning used to tell her "Your're not allowed to use your Ipod during school hours", to which my daughter patiently repeated everyday "It's an insulin pump", until she just gave up and no longer answered back and only nodded her head. :o)

I have been on the OmniPod for about a month now. I went to a tools/car part store and was asked "Sasha, WHAT IS THAT???" I calmly explained ( while laughing ) It was my first time being asked about it. I joke with my family that I am a robot or that I have a pacemaker. People have actually believed me!

I have been on the OmniPod for about a month now. I went to a tools/car part store and was asked "Sasha, WHAT IS THAT???" I calmly explained ( while laughing ) It was my first time being asked about it. I joke with my family that I am a robot or that I have a pacemaker. People have actually believed me!

When I first got my pump, my son decided I was the bionic woman (too old a reference for you young'uns?). And once a woman noticed the lump under my shirt from my CGM and asked if I had cancer. NOOOO thank you! :-)

I've been on an insulin pump for 14 years now, so I've heard them all! I was in high school when I started on it and pagers were still popular. I had many teachers tell me to put my pager away, or threaten to take it...I'd like to see them try ;) No one is going anywhere with my pump!

I love this post! My daughter is type 1 and wears a pump, and I get similar comments all the time... she is only 2 so I also have gotten the "is that a GPS device to keep track of her?" question on more than one occasion!! Great list! :)

I get a lot of 'WoW! that's a cool cellphone!' from kids cuz my pump is pink with pink and black skulls on it. One time someone asked me if it was a bomb when my tubing was hanging out from under my shirt. And the best reaction was just recently when my son's hairstylist caught a glimpse of my pump while I was removing my jacket. She yelled right out loud,'What the hell is that thing!?!?! A music player or something? It's so big, might be time to upgrade! I'd be embarrassed to carry that around!" I told her, 'I'm diabetic, it's an insulin pump. Doesn't do anything cool except keep me alive.' She looked at me strangely and replied,'Oh. They make those things now? It's cool lookin.' (again, because of the pink and black skulls.)